Dell pushing into services market

Things appear to be improving for Dell since the return of its founder a few months ago. Since then, the PC giant has purchased gaming PC maker Alienware, introduced multicolored PCs, and is making a push into the most profitable sector in the computing market: subscription-based services. The new line of PCs from Dell, dubbed "Vostro" (latin for 'yours'), will not include trialware but will ship with 12-month subscriptions to its PC Tuneup and Online Backup services.

Dell is also bundling all new PCs with 3-10 GB of online file storage with upgrades up to 30 GB available. Services, currently only 10% of Dell's revenue, are the fastest growing part of the company whose stock has increased 20% since Michael Dell returned to lead the flagging hardware maker. Dell's shares will probably continue to increase in value as they recently announced plans to reduce their workforce by 10%, or nearly 9,000 employees.

The new offerings are targeted mostly at small businesses and as such do not directly impact me, but I am happy to see a company that I do a lot of business with making such efforts to improve its products. My shop is almost entirely stocked with Dell desktops and servers, and the recent moves haven't done anything to dull my enthusiasm.

How do you see the recent moves by Dell? Does Michael Dell have what it takes to keep his namesake relevant in a market that has seen several different leaders in the past 15 years? Can he re-make the company as Steve Jobs (who Dell has admitted talking strategy with) has remade Apple?